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Mayor’s executive committee takes next step in Quayside deal with Google sister company

Toronto is content, for now at least, with Sidewalk Labs as a potential partner to build the Quayside high-tech neighbourhood despite warnings of “predatory” tech companies greedy for personal data.

Mayor John Tory’s executive committee voted unanimously Thursday to authorize city staff to examine and report back on Sidewalk Labs’s “master innovation and development agreement” for the 12-acre waterfront site.

Manhattan-based Sidewalk says the complex agreement, expected to be up to 1,000 pages long, will be delivered to Waterfront Toronto, the city-provincial-federal waterfront development agency that chose Sidewalk as its preferred Quayside partner, this month or in early July.

Council might not get the full response to complex questions including ownership of data and intellectual property flowing from a sensor-laden, computer-monitored cluster of homes and businesses proposed for the Queens Quay E. and Parliament St. site, until early next year.

Staff will report back earlier, by the end of this year, with suggestions for a City of Toronto digital framework — clear rules to protect residents’ privacy rights and city interests — that concerned councillors stressed is vital before any deal is signed with Sidewalk, a Google sister company.

The vote came after Tory's eight-member inner circle heard presentations from people vehemently opposed to Sidewalk's partnership with Waterfront Toronto, an agency representing Toronto, Ontario and the federal government. Others said walking away would squander a huge opportunity.

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Jim Balsille, a co-founder of Research In Motion, now chair of the Centre for International Governance Innovation, said Toronto is behind other cities in developing rules for data use and that leaves it vulnerable to loss of control and exploitation by a tech giants such as Google.

“Data is the most potent force in the world at play right now,” Balsille told councillors.

“These are the most sophisticated and predatory companies in the world. I absolutely assure you they know what they’re doing, they know the side doors,” he said. “I did this game for decades, I know how it’s played, and they look to prey on vulnerability and those that they can use.”

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Bianca Wylie of Tech Reset Canada and opposition group Block Sidewalk warned that Toronto could set a precedent for cities around the world if it cedes control to an “under-regulated monopoly... using our public land and infrastructure.”

While they spoke, fresh criticism emerged in affidavits filed by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association’s application for judicial review to get the three levels of government to stop the project dubbed “Sidewalk Toronto.”

In one of the documents filed in court, Ben Green, a PhD candidate in applied math at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, argues that Sidewalk Labs’ assurances that any data on residents of, or visitors to, Quayside would be rendered anonymous can’t be trusted.

“I do not believe that this promise can be reliably kept,” because of sophisticated artificial intelligence and other tech that can piece together bits of data to identify users, he wrote, accusing Sidewalk of “drastically understating the level of privacy harms involved in their proposed data collection practices.”

Councillors also got an earful, however, from strong proponents of the project, including renowned Toronto urban designer Ken Greenberg, who said Sidewalk — an urban innovation company seeking to use tech to solve city problems including housing affordability — is not Google even if they share an owner.

“This isn’t Silicon Valley trying to make a city,” he said, “but rather urbanists who understand the joy and complexity of urban experience looking to advance great planning and design using technologies selectively, and where beneficial.”

Mike Yorke of the Carpenters’ District Council of Canada said proposals to make Quayside a test site and possible manufacturing hub for “mass timber” — an emerging industry using new techniques to make tall buildings with structural timber — could create “green jobs” for his members.

Cherise Burda, executive director of Ryerson’s City Building Institute, said that, amid a global climate-change crisis, Toronto shouldn’t prematurely reject promised help building a neighbourhood proposed to absorb more carbon than it emits.

Tory called the city staff report a “solid start” on giving council the framework it needs to be equipped to decide whether to support Waterfront Toronto proceeding with Sidewalk.

Councillor Joe Cressy, whose ward includes Quayside and sits on Waterfront Toronto’s board, said he feels comfortable moving forward because he trusts city staff to craft a “robust and rigorous process to evaluate” Sidewalk’s master plan. “I look forward to the hard debates ahead,” he said.

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Waterfront Toronto now says its vote on whether to move ahead with Sidewalk, previously scheduled for September, now won’t happen until December or January. The agency has said the city, provincial and federal governments would later have a final vote before Quayside will be built.

Correction - June 7, 2019: This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly said Mayor John Tory’s executive committee heard from people opposed to Waterfront Toronto. In fact, those people were opposed to Waterfront Toronto’s partnership with Google sister company, Sidewalk Labs.

David Rider is the Star's City Hall bureau chief and a reporter covering Toronto politics. Follow him on Twitter: @dmrider

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